When Worlds Collide
by rebkos
Summary: When a typo in the 4th Harry Potter book sends the trio into the world of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, the trio must figure out a way to fix things before irreversible damage is done to both their worlds.
1. Of Dragons and Daggers

**A/N. I don't own Harry Potter, I don't own Dragonriders of Pern, and I don't want to pretend that I do. The first 5 lines are copied word for word from the end of the 4th Harry Potter book, because that's when this all starts.**

**Furthermore: Many readers have commented on copyright rules regarding the Dragonriders of Pern series. Anne McCaffrey has reduced her restriction on fanfictions. You can now post fanfictions without fear of repercussions. There is even an Anne McCaffrey category in the book section. Thank you for your concern!**

This fic takes place during Anne McCaffrey's _Dragonquest_

Chapter 1  
Of Dragons and Daggers

"_See you, Harry," said Ron, clapping him on the back._

"'_Bye, Harry!" said Hermione, and she did something she had never done before, and kissed him on the cheek._

"_Harry – thanks," George muttered, while Fred nodded fervently at his side._

_Harry winked at them, turned to Uncle Vernon, and followed him silently from the station. There was no point worrying yet, he told himself, as he got into the back of the Dursley's car._

_As Hagrid had said, what would come would come... and he would have to meet it when it_ fof.

Fof? Harry paused. That wasn't what Hagrid had said. Harry couldn't entirely remember what he had said.

For a split second Harry sat dumbfounded. He quickly regained his senses when the car around him disappeared and he fell into the hot sands that were now below him.

Harry stood up with trembling legs. He looked around franticly half expecting to see Death Eaters apparating. What Harry didn't expect to see was his trunk lying neatly behind him as if it too had fallen out of the car. Glancing around he saw the area looked like an old roman coliseum. The ground was covered in fine sand (which was very hot and starting to burn through Harry's sneakers). There was a low wall surrounding the sand, and raised seats behind the wall. Harry started turning in a slow circle and saw there was an arched entrance to the area where you could either enter the stands or the sanded area from.

There was a scream. Harry knew it to be Hermione's. What was she doing here?

Turning to where the scream had come from Harry saw Ron and Hermione. Later Harry would notice that the way everyone was positioned exactly relative to where everyone was in London. However this strange fact wasn't what was holding Harry's attention. The large golden dragon trouncing towards Hermione and Ron was quite enough to deal with right then and there.

Ron reacted quickly; he didn't have time to pull his wand out of his pocket, so he just shot the spell straight through his jacket. However his unfortunate choice of "Stupefy!" only succeed in getting himself knocked out as the spell bounced off of the dragon's thick hide and back at him.

Harry had kicked open his trunk before Ron even had the chance to fully slump to the ground. Harry reached for his wand but his Firebolt jumped into his hand by its own power. Without hesitation Harry mounted the broom and flew straight at Hermione and Ron.

"Hermione!" He yelled, reaching his hand out to her as he flew by. Hermione grabbed on to his hand and succeeded in swing up onto the broom behind Harry.

Harry made a sharp turn in the air above the dragon's head and sped back to his trunk. He jumped off the broom and went straight to his trunk, searching for his wand.

"Harry! What do we do!" Hermione shrieked stumbling as she climbed off the broom.

Pulling his wand from the trunk he turned to the Dragon. It didn't seem to have noticed Hermione's sudden disappearance (or didn't care) and was still advancing on Ron's unconscious form. Hermione pulled her wand out of her pocket and shot a few sparks at the Dragon to try to distract it from a completely defenseless Ron.

Hermione's plan worked (which in Harry's opinion wasn't necessarily good). The massive dragon turned it's head towards them and gave a deep growl.

"Uh oh…" She mumbled, as she took an unintentional step back.

"Um..." Harry didn't finish because a woman and at least eight men had entered the arena and were running towards the dragon. The woman, in the lead, was shouting at the creature.

"Ramoth! What's wrong?" She demanded of the beast. Then she noticed Ron's unconscious form and the two large trunks sitting behind him. She paused. The Dragon turned its giant golden head towards her and the two stared at each other is silence.

The woman looked towards Harry and Hermione who had simply stood there watching in stunned silence. The men followed her gaze and jumped in surprise. She looked back at the Dragon as it started to growl.

"Please Ramoth!" She said, and turned to Harry and Hermione again. "Who are you?"

Harry hesitated, and then with a glance at Hermione, they both lowered their wands.

"We didn't mean any harm," Harry said. "That Dragon attacked us."

The Dragon was not amused. With a roar it started towards Harry and Hermione who quickly raised their wands again, not entirely sure if even together they could do anything to stop the monster.

"RAMOTH! DON'T!" The woman shouted. The Dragon stopped; it turned its head to the woman, and after a moment of silence growled and walked to a pile of eggs that Harry now noticed was near Ron. With some irony, Harry realized there was a golden egg in the center with the other eggs.

"I can assure you; whatever happened here was not caused by Ramoth attacking anyone or anything." The woman said to them as she quickly strode over, with the men following close behind. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Harry and Hermione lowered their wands.

Harry looked over the woman's shoulder (which wasn't very difficult given the fact she was no taller then himself) to check on Ron. He seemed as well as could be excepted (still unconscious next to the trunks).

Hermione spoke first "I'm Hermione Granger" she said very respectfully, "This is Harry, Harry Potter." She emphasized the "Potter."

Harry looked at the woman expecting to see the usual double take and forehead stare, but it didn't come.

Instead she said, "As you should know I am Lessa, Weyrwoman here at Benden. What are you doing here?"

"We..um.." Hermione hesitated and looked at Harry with a face he had only seen on one or two occasions; it was an expression of complete and total blankness. She simply had no answer to that question.

"We sorta just appeared." Harry said unhelpfully.

Lessa raised an eyebrow. "From between?"

Harry looked at Hermione for help, which didn't come.

"Well, no, from London actually, King's Cross to be exact," Harry said rather blandly.

The woman glared. "Explain."

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. How on earth were they supposed to explain that they were leaving the train station and just appeared here?

"Well… we... um..." Harry started, not entirely sure where he was going from there.

"What are those?" She interrupted.

"Magic wands," Hermione answered, but the way she said it made it sound completely ludicrous.

Harry normally would have given Hermione a reprimanding look, but he was distracted by two new arrivals in the arena who seemed to be examining Ron.

Lessa spoke "My patience is running out. Tell me why you are on the hatching ground, and where you are from. You are obviously not from here," she said, glancing at their clothing, which, Harry assumed, looked just as outlandish as the gown she was wearing, and the tunics the others wore.

Hermione let out a small gasp, and Harry followed her gaze to where Ron was lying. Only now he was on a sort of rough stretcher and was being carried away.

"HEY!" Harry shouted and bolted after them. Hermione was quick to follow.

Lessa shouted after them, and dragon reared up its massive head and roar, but Harry and Hermione ignored both of them and chased after the stretcher.

The people carrying Ron had froze when the Dragon roared and still hadn't regained their sense. Harry and Hermione easily caught up to them.

"Don't move," Harry snarled at one of the men holding the stretcher as his wand let off a small shower of threatening sparks.

Hermione meanwhile was focused on Ron.

"Ennervate!"

Ron's eyelids flickered open and he sat up.

"Whathehellhappened." Ron's words were slurred and he sounded rather disoriented.

The sparks had been bad enough, but Ron's miraculous recovery was too much for the men holding the stretcher and they promptly proceeded in dropping it in surprise. Harry and Hermione caught Ron before he hit the ground, and helped him to a standing position.

By this time Lessa and the others had caught up with them.

"By the first Egg! What do you think you are doing!" One of the men snarled reaching for his belt knife.

"I think we would all like to know." Lessa snapped, sounding strangely like Professor McGonagal.

"What the bloody hell is going on!" Ron shouted, as crude as ever having now fully recovered his senses.

"Ron." Hermione's tone mirrored Lessa's.

One of the men who had been carrying the stretcher, and had been gawking at Hermione now found his voice.

"She woke him up!" he said pointing at Hermione. "With that stick, she woke him up! And he attacked me with fire from his!"

There was an awkward silence in which Harry noticed he was still clutching his wand in a slightly menacing stance while supporting Ron. Hermione also had hers at the ready.

Harry and Hermione didn't have enough time to react when two of the men attacked them.

One of them tackled Harry and knocked him to the ground, Harry felt at least three of his ribs crack as the much heavier man forced a knee into his chest. After a brief struggle the man jumped to his feet with his belt knife in one hand, and Harry's wand in his other. Harry started to sit up, but quickly lay back down. Harry's quick reaction was partially because the pain in his ribs was so intense he felt dizzy, and partially because the man who knocked him over in the first place stomped a steel-toed boot onto his already bruised chest. "Don't even think about it." He growled.

While Harry was having trouble enough breathing, Hermione had other problems.

Hermione's attacker had also tackled her and pulled out his belt knife, but, instead of knocking her to the ground, had pinned her against the wall. Her attacker had her wand hand pinned outstretched next to her, and had his belt knife at her throat.

"Drop it!" he shouted.

Hermione hesitated, knowing her wand was the only weapon she had against the almost dozen people surrounding her armed with belt knives.

She quickly regretted the hesitation.

Her attacker drew back his knife, and then smacked her in the face with the broad side.

Hermione cried out in pain and dropped her wand as a thin line of blood formed on her face.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Ron.

"Leave her alone!" He shouted and pulled out his wand. "Or she gets it!" He pointed his wand at Lessa.

This was the wrong thing to say. Very few things that Ron could have said, regardless of their profanity content, could have possibly been worse things to say.

Everyone pulled out a belt knife, and suddenly the air was full of roars, the loudest coming from the golden dragon.

"T'bor," Lessa said calmly. "Release the girl. F'lar, get off of him."

T'bor hesitated only briefly, and then released his grip on Hermione's arm and slowly started backing away, blade still out.

F'lar meanwhile exchanged a glare with Lessa and then stepped off of Harry.

Hermione slowly slid down the wall, picked up her wand and shakily stood back up.

Ron came to her side and grabbed her arm since she was pale and looked ready to faint.

"Drop it." Ron snarled pointing his wand at F'lar.

F'lar glared at Ron and threw Harry's wand down next to him.

Harry grabbed it and tried to sit up again. He unintentionally yelped in pain and quickly lay back down again.

"Harry!" Hermione cried and rushed to his side.

Ron stayed where he was with his wand out, ready to take on the eleven-armed muggles around him.

"Now," Lessa said slowly, "we can all lower our weapons, or we can continue and turn this into a rather unpleasant bloodbath."

Harry who was near passing out from the pain didn't need to be asked twice. He dropped his wand and went back to clutching his chest.

Hermione pocketed her wand and went back to gently pressing on Harry's ribs trying to assess the damage.

The armed men hesitated. Ron still had his wand up.

Harry jerked his head at Ron and Hermione stopped her prodding to look. Deftly, she smacked Ron in the shin and went back to Harry.

Ron hesitated a moment longer and lowered his wand.

All blades were sheathed, and the last thing Harry heard before he finally passed out was Lessa saying something about "Summon Master Oldive."


	2. Pern

Chapter 2  
Pern

A dragon.

The Hungarian Horntail Harry had faced during the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

Harry was flying above it on his Firebolt. Suddenly the Dragon began to morph into a large gold colored one. Harry realized his broom was gone and he began falling. When he hit the ground he felt all this ribs crack.

Then he woke up.

Glancing around, he found himself in a fairly large room with stone walls. The room had colorful draperies hanging from the walls that reminded Harry of how the great hall at Hogwarts looked. Harry himself was lying on a bed, shirtless, and his chest had been wrapped with a soft bandage.

Hearing voices to the right of him, he slowly turned his head.

Ron, Hermione, Lessa, F'lar, T'bor, and three other men Harry had not seen before were sitting at a table. Out of the three strangers, one was elderly, the second looked younger then he really was, fifty maybe, and the third looked to be in his late twenties.

"So we left the train by walking through the barrier again." Hermione was saying. "And on our way out of the station we simply appeared here."

"Ah, our third visitor awakes." Said the middle-aged man, who seemed quite cheerful and had been watching Harry.

"Harry!" Hermione jumped up from her chair and ran over to his side, quickly followed by Ron. "Are you okay? How do you feel? We just told them everything. I didn't know what else to do. How do you feel?" She said very fast as usual.

Harry muttered something about being fine and started trying to sit up.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said the elderly man approaching Harry. "You received quite a blow. Your ribs may take months to heal properly." He glanced at F'lar who didn't return his gaze. "I am Masterhealer Oldive. This," he gestured towards the cheerful man, "is Masterharper Robinton, this is F'nor, and of course you've already met our Weyrleaders F'lar and Lessa, and T'bor of High Reaches Weyr."

Harry could tell that this was suppose to mean something to him, like Hermione thought "Harry Potter" would mean something to Lessa, but it didn't.

"Um, hello."

"Come now Oldive! Do you really think the boy has any clue what you are talking about?" Master Robinton said laughing heartily.

Master Robinton pulled a chair over to Harry and sat down. "Now that we have an explanation of who you three are, we should explain a little about our world, since it obviously differs so much from yours."

So Robinton explained, and Harry felt even more confused then when Hagrid had told him four years ago that he was a Wizard!

It turned out, that not only had the three left London, but they had left Earth altogether! They were on a planet known as Pern. The planet was plagued by a substance known as Thread that fell from the "Red Star" which was in an erratic orbit around Pern's sun. The deadly Thread fell from the sky and killed anything organic that it came in contact with. The only way to stop the thread was extreme heat or cold. Drowning it in water also worked. Long ago small creatures called Firelizards were bred into giant Dragons, and when the Dragons ate a substance called Fire-stone they gained the ability to breath flame. Green, blue, brown and bronze dragons flew against the thread, while the golden queens stayed below with flame throwers to stop any thread that got through the main fighting dragons. The golden queen dragons didn't eat the fire-stone because it would cause them to lose their ability to lay eggs. Each dragon had a rider that it spent its life with, and had a telepathic connection to. All dragons had the power to "Go Between" which meant they could leave one place and appear instantly in another.

Like apparating, Harry thought.

Lessa had a golden dragon and F'lar had a bronze, and together they ran Benden Weyr, one of seven Weyrs on Pern. Several yeasr back, before the current pass of the Red Star, Pern had been down to only one Weyr, the others had mysteriously disappeared. It was Lessa who discovered dragons could not only travel through space, but time as well, and she went back in time four hundred turns (Pern years) to bring dragon riders of the past forward to save Pern from thread. However, Lessa's trip turned out to be the reason the Weyr disappeared, because four hundred years ago she arrived to take them foreword in time, but then four hundred years in the future she realized she had and had to go back and get them.

The paradox made Harry's head spin.

Harry simply stared at Robinton as he finished. Hermione looked very enlightened and Ron looked ready to be sick.

"So, not only are we not on Earth any more, but we traveled across the universe, to land on a Hatching Ground and got Lessa's dragon mad enough to eat us?" Harry said in disbelief.

"It's no more farfetched then us believing you simply appeared out of nowhere and have magical powers." Lessa said curtly from behind Robinton. "And Ramoth would never do such a thing!"

Harry didn't know how to respond to that and changed the subject. "Um, where are our trunks?"

Hermione pointed towards the corner where all three trunks lay neatly piled.

"Oh. Good. Um…" Harry looked appealingly at Hermione and Ron looking for something to say.

"No need to speak boy," Master Robinton said knowingly. "You just rest."

With that he turned towards F'lar and Lessa. "My throat is simply parched from all this story telling, I wouldn't say no to a bit of wine." He said with a laugh, and then gestured grandly at the door.

With much glaring at the Master Harper, F'lar, Lessa, F'nor and T'bor left quickly followed by Robinton. Master Oldive hesitated at the door.

"I'll be back to check on you later." He said and then left with the others.

Quietly the door was closed, but then not so quietly a bar was slid into place across it. Hermione ran over to the door and placed an ear on it. After a few moments she stomped back over to Harry and Ron.

"They locked the door and that F'nor is out there guarding!" She said with much huffing.

Ron swore multiple times, but Harry simply lay there, staring at the ceiling.

"How'd we get here?" He asked, the question directed more to himself than the others.

"Portkey?" Ron said dully.

"Across space to a planet no one's ever heard of?" Hermione snarled sarcastically.

Could it have been a portkey? Harry wondered. Was this one big setup by Voldemort? Were they really here? Or maybe just miles out of London in some deserted area, and all this was a set up?

Slowly Harry drifted out of consciousness wondering.


	3. Demonstration

Chapter 3  
Demonstration

Harry awoke to a loud banging noise causing him to nearly jumped out of bed, but his current condition prevented that. Slowly Harry tried to sit up to see what had made the noise. Judging by the light filtering through a nearby window it was the middle of the night. However, one corner of the room was lit up by a tiny glowing object. Harry could just make out Ron standing up next to him; he seemed to have been asleep on the floor.

"Lumos." Ron muttered, and a light appeared at the end of his wand.

Harry reached for his own wand, but couldn't seem to find it.

"Hermione? What are you doing?" Ron walked towards the corner of the room where their trunks were.

"Nothing!" She sounded disgusted. "None of my books ever mention any place called Pern! And none of this nonsense about telepathic dragons!" She continued throwing her books back into her trunk with loud bangs.

"Hermione! Stop it! You'll wake everyone in the whole building up!" Harry said as loudly as he deemed safe.

Hermione stopped throwing her books. "Oh! Sorry Harry! Did I wake you?"

Ron muttered something that earned him a punch on the shoulder.

Hermione walked over to Harry's bed and sat down at the foot of it.

"This is terrible! What are we going to do!" She moaned holding her head in her hands.

"I don't know." Harry muttered.

"I vote getting some sleep." Ron said very business like, and received another punch. "Will you stop that!"

"Will you stop being so childish!" Hermione said, nearly shrieking.

"Guys just stop it." Harry muttered. "We can figure something out in the morning."

Hermione started to say something but Harry had already begun dozing off and missed what it was.

The next time Harry awoke, it was well after dawn and sunlight was filtering through the window. His ribs felt a lot better after all that sleep, and he managed to sit up.

Glancing around the room for Ron and Hermione, he found them asleep on the floor leaning against the bed. Harry smirked. Hermione had curled up nearly on Ron's lap, and Ron had his arm around her.

There was a knock at the door. Harry glanced over at it, and Hermione jumped to her feet completely alert. Ron on the other hand rolled over a bit and snorted.

Harry smacked Ron upside the head just as they heard the bar slide off the door and it opened.

A woman they hadn't seen before quickly came in placed a tray on the table and then left, keeping her eyes averted the entire time. The door creaked as it was barred again.

"They're all hoping mad I tell you." Ron said through a yawn while standing up. "I say we make a break for it. I bet a simple Alohomora would unbar the door."

"Oh brilliant Ron, and then how about we take out a dozen guards, dragons, and carry Harry out of here all at the same time!"

Harry was meanwhile ignoring their bickering. "Anyone seen my wand?"

Hermione paused for a moment. "No." Now she looked worried. "When did you last see it?"

"Yesterday, right after F'lar tackled me..." Harry trailed off, F'lar wouldn't have…? Would he? Who knew what these dragonmen would do.

"You don't think he stole it do you?" Ron said, completing his thought.

"He could have… Hermione, give me your wand."

Hermione pulled her wand out and slowly handed it to him. "What do you intend to do exactly?" She asked, sounding worried and motherly as always.

"Get my wand back." Harry said simply.

"Harry no!" Hermione realized what he was going to do a split second too late.

"ACCIO WAND!" Harry shouted just as Hermione tried to snatch her wand away, but it was too late.

"Harry what if some one sees it! You can't just-" Harry never learned what he just couldn't do because there was a whistle of something flying through the air, and a tapping on the door. His wand couldn't seem to quite get to him. There were sounds of running boots to mix in with the tapping noise, and the guard outside the room started screaming.

"Oh for goodness sake!" Hermione strode over to the door and muttered "Alohomora."

The door flew open and Harry's wand flew to his hand. Unfortunately F'lar came running in just as Harry caught it.

"How did you do that?" He shouted reaching for his belt knife.

"Why did you steal my wand?" Harry countered.

"I didn't! I found it on the Hatching Ground!" F'lar seemed very insulted. "I would never steal anything!" F'lar seemed to feel quite strongly about this particular statement for some reason.

Lessa, Robinton and Oldive now entered the room.

"F'lar! What are you doing, this boy needs his rest!" Oldive said pointing at Harry.

"He… I…" F'lar stuttered, and then stormed out of the room. Lessa, with a quick glance at the trio, followed.

Robinton stared questioningly at Harry. Somehow the Masterharper had already figured out that Harry was the unofficial leader of the trio.

"I thought F'lar stole my wand." The look on Robinton's face told Harry that that was an unlikely story.

"You seem to have it presently." He said smiling.

Master Oldive grunted and walked up to Harry.

"You should be resting." He gently pushed Harry's shoulder down so he'd lie down.

Master Oldive left the room. Master Robinton started to follow him out the door, but then with a quick glance at the guard outside, he closed the door and turned to the trio.

"Would you be willing to, say, give a demonstration of the abilities you mentioned yesterday?" He asked with a smile.

Ron started laughing and Hermione sighed with exasperation.

Hermione swished and flicked her wand ("Wingardium Leviosa") and one of the plates of food the woman had brought it earlier floated into the air and over to Harry.

Master Robinton looked delighted.

Harry started tasting the food. It looked quite normal, and tasted normal too. The meat item that looked like turkey and tasted like it, there were some vegetables and a hot drink that tasted like tea.

Ron had started eating too, but Hermione was busily making various objects fly around the room. She even turned an unused chair into a gerbil.

Master Robinton was thrilled.

"Now, I must ask you three something," he said turning seriously suddenly. "Lessa told me Ramoth saw an interesting... event, yesterday when you three appeared on the hatching ground. She says one of you rid what must have been a tiny dragon." He looked absolutely perplexed. "Could you explain?"

Harry was grinning. "I'd happily show you, but…" He trailed off placing his hand on his chest.

Ron stared at Harry pleadingly.

"But I think Ron would like to," he finished smoothly.

Ron jumped up and ran off to the trunks. He popped one open and rummaged around a bit before pulling out Harry's Firebolt.

"Ta Da" Ron said and held it out to Master Robinton.

"You intend to sweep?" The Masterharper asked confused.

"With a Firebolt? Are you mad!" Ron almost screamed.

"Ron, just do it." Hermione said disgusted.

Ron didn't have to be asked twice. He quickly mounted the broom, kicked off from the ground and flew about a dozen laps around the room before landing again.

Master Robinton was beyond elation.


	4. Browns and Burning

Chapter 4  
Browns and Burning

"You are healing at a remarkable rate," Master Oldive commented as he examined Harry's ribs. "I can't detect the fractures any more. It usually takes months for injuries like this to heal fully, not three days. It's almost like…" He trailed off but everyone in the room knew what he meant.

It was true that Hermione had used a few Speedy-Healy charms, but nothing big enough to fix the entire fracture in one sitting. Harry wasn't willing to let Hermione risk removing all his ribs in practice.

Hermione of course had been quite offended by this.

"I would never do anything so stupid!" She shouted indignantly after having demonstrated the charm on her own face to heal the cut she had gotten from T'bor.

"Like fawn over Lockhart." Ron muttered, which earned him his fourth punch in the shoulder that day.

"Well," Master Oldive said slowly "Normally I'd want you to stay in bed at least another week before you started getting around, but I see no problem with letting you now."

Harry started standing up. Since it had been several days since he'd been on his feet he stumbled a bit and Hermione and Ron rushed to his side to help him get his balance.

"Now, Master Robinton has convinced the Weyrleaders to let you freely explore. However Lessa requests you avoid the hatching ground." Master Oldive tone told them quite simply that the Weyrleaders really didn't want them wandering around, but after summoning wand incident no one had even bothered to bar the door.

"Exploration! An excellent idea Oldive!" Master Robinton exclaimed joyfully as he walked in the room. "However, perhaps a tour would be a better plan then simply letting the run amuck." He paused. "Although, for all we know they could discover a hidden room with devices that can freeze Thread in it tracks!" He laughed and Master Oldive smiled wryly.

Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione looking for any clue as to what they were talking about.

Master Robinton catching their confusion quickly explained.

"Young Lord Jaxom of Ruatha hold and his friend Felessan managed to discover some rooms hidden deep in the Weyr. The rooms contained ancient equipment like strange metal tubes that you look into and see small partials of dust that look like boulders." Master Robinton whispered dramatically at the end.

This certainly did not have the desired effect.

Ron raised an eyebrow, Harry bit his lip, and Hermione was visibly shaking from trying not to laugh.

Still trying to control herself, Hermione spoke.

"Interesting," she choked, "some sort of microscope."

Harry was positive if he didn't stop trying to hold in his laughter his ribs were going break all over again.

"Microscope... Micro, Scope, what a delightfully perfect name!" Master Robinton exclaimed. "You have the fine makings of a Harper my dear!" He clapped Hermione on the back.

Hermione shocked expression was too much for Ron and he burst out laughing.

"Ha! Now all you need is a Telescope and you're all set!" Ron continued laughing uncontrollably.

"Telescope?" Robinton asked.

"Oh yes," Ron put on his best impression of Professor Trelawney, "A fabulous item that allows you to see the most distant star up close."

"Oh yes, Mastersmith Fandarel is working on a Distance Viewer, what did you call it? Telestope?"

Harry grinned, remembering Ron talking about a Fellyfone, "Telescope."

"Telescope, telescope, another wonderful word." Robinton seemed lost in thought briefly. "Right then, how about that tour?"

-----

"And that is the feeding ground," Master Robinton said pointing pleasantly to a large open area where large ostrich like creatures were penned in.

As he spoke a big blue dragon swooped down and caught one of the helpless creatures in its talons. The dragon had barely landed on one of the nearby cliff ledges before it began digging in.

"Lovely." Hermione smiled wryly.

Harry gazed around the area. The main Weyr itself seemed to be carved right into the cliff side. It was really quite amazing that anyone could actually create such a thing in a shear rock wall. Harry idly wondered what the view from the plateau was like, but his thoughts were interrupted.

There was a loud bellow behind them. All four of them whipped around and saw a great brown dragon leap into the air and then disappear between.

"I wonder where F'nor's going." Robinton said vaguely.

All three were staring where the dragon was right before it disappeared into thin air. Disappeared into between.

"Wow." Ron said in awe.

"Hagrid was right wasn't he," Harry said smiling.

"About what?" Hermione asked vaguely.

"Dragons, they're all-" Harry suddenly interrupted himself with a shout of pain as he grabbed at his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Hermione and Ron ask simultaneously.

"My scar," Harry grunted through gritted teeth.

Hermione and Ron pulled out their wands and started cautiously looking around.

Robinton took a step back in surprise. "What do you think you're doing?"

Harry didn't hear Hermione's reply. Something was wrong. His scar was burning too much. It had never burned this badly before, even when Voldemort had touched him. Harry shuddered at the memory, but then he couldn't stop shuddering, he fell down and started having some sort of seizure.

And then it stopped.

His scar stopped burning.

Harry gasped in surprise at the same moment a hundred dragons roared.

Hermione gave a little cry and fainted.


	5. Gone Between

Chapter 5  
Gone Between

Ron dropped his wand and caught Hermione right before she hit the ground.

"Hermione!"

Harry jumped up and helped Ron support her.

"You-hoo, Hermione," Ron said while gently slapping her on the face.

Hermione twitched but didn't wake up.

"Come on, let's get her back to our room." Ron said as he shifted his position to support Hermione better.

Harry nodded and did the same. "Master Robinton?" Harry looked at the man questioningly. Robinton was staring at Hermione with a peculiar look. It took a moment, but Harry realized he'd seen that look before. Snape had been giving it to him during their second year, right after everyone found out he was a Parseltongue.

"You two seem to have this under control, if you'll excuse me." Robinton turned around and strode off quickly.

"They're all hopping mad." Ron muttered as he quickly bent down to retrieve his wand.

-----

While Ron and Harry were laying Hermione on her bed (another side effect of the wand incident was they suddenly had all the furnishing they could ever want), the Masterharper was in the Weyrleader's room waiting for them to return.

"What happened?" He asked quickly when F'lar and Lessa finally walked into the room.

"There was a mating flight." Lessa said softly.

"Brekke? Did she lose control of Wirenth? Did she gorge?" The Masterharper's words came out in a rush.

"Brekke didn't lose control." F'lar said firmly, almost proudly. "Prideth rose too, Kylara didn't bring her away from the Weyr before Wirenth's flight…" F'lar trailed off.

Robinton knew what was coming. "Which went between?" Robinton knew one of the dragons had to have died and gone between during the flight, otherwise the dragons at Benden would not have cried out as they did.

Lessa whispered, "Both."

"No!" Robinton gasped. "How did that happen?"

"The dragons fought, both lost." Lessa said simply and sat down heavily in a chair.

"This would certainly explain the girl." Robinton murmured mostly to himself.

"What girl?" Lessa asked vaguely rubbing her forhead.

"The one that appeared on the hatching ground, Hermione."

Lessa and F'lar were instantly alert. "What about her?"

"She fainted."

"So?"

"Right when the dragons cried out."

The room became completely silent.

"But… She can't!" Lessa said, first slowly, then defiantly. "They aren't from here, they don't understand! They just don't understand…" She trailed off.

F'lar was keeping eerily quiet; he seemed very disturbed by this new revelation.

"Historically..." The Masterharper started, but then stopped when he realized no one was listening too him.

-----

Coincidentally, at the same moment the Masterharper trailed off, Hermione awoke with a start.

"You okay?" Ron asked. He and Harry had been anxiously hovering over her.

Hermione glanced at them confused for a moment, and then remembered what had happened. She sat up sharply. "Were we attacked? What happened? Is your head okay?"

Ron grabbed her shoulder and forced her to lie back down.

"We're fine, but something strange is going on here." Harry said.

"What do you mean?" Hermione ask as she reluctantly lay back down.

"It's been quiet as a tomb since we got you back up here." Ron explained. "You passed out just as all the dragons roared, and then everyone and everything seemed to just stop."

"How long have I been out?" She asked, making another futile attempt to sit up which was once again foiled by Ron.

"Nearly an hour," Harry answered. "Are you sure you're okay? You were really pale when we finally got you up here." Harry's worried tone made Hermione stare.

"I'm fine. Oh Ron stop it!" She said and managed to sit up.

"Hermione are you sure?" Harry rested his hand on her shoulder (mainly so he could help Ron force her back down).

"I'm fine!" Hermione batted Harry's hand off her shoulder and stood up. "Will you two stop it! I'm fine, I was probably just dehydrated or something."

"What about the dragons?" Asked Harry, he and Ron were positive the dragons' roaring was somehow connected to Hermione's fainting.

"What about them? They seem to like roaring. No big deal." Hermione was getting irritated.

Ron opened his mouth to say something just as there was a knock on the door.

"Now what…" Hermione muttered as Harry walked over to open it.

Harry opened the door and Master Robinton, F'lar and Lessa entered the room.

"You're awake, excellent. Are you alright?" Robinton asked.

Hermione gave a genuinely forced smile. "I'm fine. Thank you."

"Good. We have much to discuss."

Robinton, F'lar and Lessa sat down at the table in the room. After exchanging a glance, Harry, Ron and Hermione joined them.

"Earlier," the Masterharper paused and cleared his throat. "Earlier two dragons," he paused again. "Two dragons went between." Robinton shuddered slightly.

Harry raised an eyebrow. Hermione stared blankly.

Ron took a slightly less diplomatic approach.

"So?"

F'lar and Lessa stood up sharply.

"How dare you!" Lessa said sharply.

"What?" Ron backed his chair away from F'lar. "Didn't you say they went between all the time going places?"

"But then they come out!" F'lar growled.

"F'lar, please." Robinton had grabbed the Weyrleader's arm and more or less dragged him back down into his chair. Lessa, frowning, sat down stiffly.

"Yes, dragons do pop in and out of between constantly, but they always come out. When a dragon dies it goes between, and stays there." Robinton explained.

"So they just vanish?" Hermione asked.

"Yes."

"Is that why all the dragons called out earlier?" Ron asked curiously.

"Yes, whenever one of their kind goes between, they mourn." Robinton replied.

F'lar rested a hand on Lessa's arm as she gave a small shudder.

"But, did the two go at the exact same time?" Harry was wondering what all this had to do with them.

"They were both queens." Robinton replied.

Ron opened his mouth, probably to say "So?" but Hermione kicked him under the table and he kept quiet.

"One queen rose to mate. During the mating flight a second one appeared. They fought. Then they went between together." Robinton closed his eyes mournfully.

"Are the riders okay?" Hermione asked, slightly pale again.

"Brekke is alive, she can hear all dragons like I can," Lessa replied, "so the shock might not be as horrible for her." Lessa's face darkened, "Kylara lives."

"Will they get new dragons?" Harry asked.

Robinton breathed in sharply and looked at Lessa and F'lar.

"Re-impress?" F'lar asked slowly, he looked at Lessa significantly.

Lessa returned his gaze but said nothing.

"That," F'lar said looking away from Lessa, "That has never been attempted before."

"Your probably wondering why we're telling you all this." Robinton said quickly. "You fainted exactly when the dragons went between." Robinton said, staring hard at Hermione.

Harry and Ron glanced at each other, silently congratulating themselves.

"What's that have to do with anything?" Hermione said failing miserably in her attempt to keep a tremble out of her voice.

"When a dragon goes between riders occasionally pass out from the sudden anguish felt by their dragons." Robinton's eyes never left Hermione's as he spoke. "However, occasionally, those who have not impressed a dragon pass out too. On those rare occasions the person in question always impresses."

Harry and Ron both turned slowly to look at Hermione, who, in Harry's opinion, looked at risk of passing out again.


	6. Historically

**A/N. Kind of a short chapter I know, but the next one will be much longer, and will be posted as soon as I fix the plot hole I found in it...heheh... Happy New Year!**

Chapter 6  
Historically

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked, her voice rising sharply.

"There is a gold queen egg in Ramoth's current clutch. It looks like you are going to be one of the candidates for the queen." Lessa replied. There wasn't even a hint of emotion in her voice.

Hermione was slowly shaking her head, "You can't be serious! I can't 'impress' a dragon!"

"That's up to the dragon." F'lar said simply.

Hermione kept shaking her head. Harry was worried. Hermione was even paler then when she was unconscious.

"I can't, I won't." Hermione kept saying over and over.

"Historically-" Robinton started saying.

"Maybe for you!" Hermione shrieked and stood up sharply. "This isn't even our bloody planet!"

Harry and Ron cautiously stood up and went to her side.

"Hermione calm down." Ron put his hand on her shoulder.

"Oh shut up Ron!" She pulled out of Ron's grasp. "You'd be a bit upset if you just got told you were going to have to deal with a gold dragon egg!"

Harry smiled wryly, but then stopped when Ron glared at him.

"Hermione, come on." Harry said.

"Don't tell me to 'come on' Harry!" Hermione shrieked. "You just keep them away from me!" She pointed dramatically and started backing away from the table .

Robinton stood up slowly, "I think you should calm down Hermione."

"I think you should shut up!" Hermione yelled, and then spun around and ran through the door to the bathroom.

Ron chased her but Hermione slammed and locked the door.

Ron turned around and stared at Harry, mouth agape. Neither of them had ever seen Hermione act like this.

F'lar and Lessa stood up. They exchanged a look with Robinton who nodded.

"We'll check back in later." Robinton said quietly to Harry, and then he and the Weyrleaders left.

"What the bloody hell is her problem!" Ron said quietly to Harry when the door was closed.

"Stress?" Harry asked as he turned to Ron. "I half expected this from both of you."

Ron was taken aback "What?"

"Well think about it. Here we are, supposedly stranded on a different planet, I haven't been calm since…" He trailed off, but Ron knew he meant before the rebirth of Voldemort and the death of Cedric.

Harry cleared his throat, "Look at it this way, you and Hermione have a family to go back too. I'd have been quite happy to stay at Hogwarts the whole summer staring at a wall."

Ron opened and closed his mouth a couple times trying to answer. Somehow nothing seemed appropriate to say.

Harry sat down on his bed and stared at the bathroom door.

"She's not going to come out of there anytime soon is she?" Ron asked looking for an excuse to change topics.

"Where's a troll when you need one?" Harry asked smiling.

Ron's shoulders started shaking, then he started laughing. Harry joined Ron and the two sat there laughing for the first time in a while.

After a few minutes of hysterics, both stopped laughing at almost the same time gasping for breath.

Harry took off his glasses and whipped them off on his shirt, while Ron sat clutching a stitch in his side.

"What are you two so giggly about?" Asked a voice.

Harry and Ron turned around and saw Hermione had finally emerged from the bathroom.

Hermione's face almost set Harry off again. Ron couldn't keep his composure and started laughing.

Harry bit his lip and tried to calm himself down enough to explain. Harry looked Hermione straight in the eye and said "Troll."

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "What?"

Ron pointed at the bathroom door trying (and failing) to stop giggling.

Hermione suddenly realized what they were talking about and burst out laughing.

There the three friends sat laughing.


	7. Bad Impressions

Chapter 7  
Bad Impressions

Just over one week later, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat in their room talking to F'lar and Lessa.

"You three need some decent clothing." Lessa was saying as F'lar handed both Harry and Ron a set of clothing each. "You," she said directing her attention to Hermione, "will have to wear this during the hatching." She handed a white robe to Hermione. "All the candidates wear those."

Hermione accepted the robe in silence, merely nodding to acknowledge Lessa.

Harry was worried about Hermione. She hadn't spoken much since Robinton's dramatic disclosure. Hermione had also turned very pale, and her lack of eating wasn't helping her either. For the past week she had done nothing but read a new book her parents had given her, and copy some maps of Pern the Masterharper had loaned her.

"Master Fandarel sent all of you these." F'lar said as he handed them each a small package.

Harry curiously opened his. Master Fandarel (the Mastersmith) had appeared a few days before and asked to see the trio's wands. After spending a long time examining and measuring them he left.

The packages each contained a sheathed belt knife, much like the one F'lar was wearing.

Raising an eyebrow, Ron grasped the hilt of the blade and pulled it out. However the hilt revealed that there was no blade at all. There wasn't even room for a blade in the sheath. Instead there was a circular slot in the middle of the sheath that couldn't have been more than half an inch in diameter.

Harry and Hermione pulled out theirs and discovered the same dilemma.

F'lar and Lessa smiled.

"Outside of the Weyrs," F'lar paused, "and the Masterharper, no one really knows what you three are… fully capable of."

F'lar took the hilt out of Harry's hand, and with one quick motion split it exactly down the middle, from the tip to the base.

Before Harry could say anything F'lar handed it back to him. Harry then realized that the inside of the hilt was hollowed out in a specific pattern, one that looked strangely familiar.

Hermione immediately understood and pulled her hilt apart. Taking out her wand she placed the handle in the hollowed out section then replaced the halves with a satisfying snap. Hermione then smoothly sheathed her wand.

Harry and Ron stared, mouths agape, if they hadn't just seen what Hermione had done they wouldn't have believed she was holding anything other then a knife. They quickly copied what Hermione had done, and all three had cleverly disguised wands.

"Wicked…" Ron kept saying in awe he pulled his wand in and out over and over.

"You three should change," F'lar said. Then he and Lessa departed.

Hermione, with a quick glance and Ron and Harry, went to the bathroom with her robe. ("Don't stay in there too long or we're coming in!" "Ron! Shut up!")

Harry and Ron quickly changed into their clothes (which were virtually identical to each other) and briefly admired themselves in the mirror. Ron seemed rather annoyed with the way his hair was clashing with the blandness of the tan tunic. He kept fidgeting with the base of it, as if pulling it down would make his hair less fiery. Harry on the other hand was adjusting the wide belt and the positioning of his "knife," he wanted it to be as easily accessible as possible.

"You aren't supposed to wear it like that." Harry laughed, as Ron tried to tuck the tunic into his brown leather pants.

Ron grunted, and went back to tugging at the hem instead.

Harry had just finished straightening out his own tunic when Hermione walked out of the bathroom wearing the gown. Neither Harry nor Ron could miss the far off look in her eyes.

"Hey," Harry walked over to her, "it's going to be okay."

"Yah, even if you don't improvise a dragon it's okay," Ron said reassuringly.

"Impress you dolt! Impress!" Hermione said almost laughing. "Not improvise!"

Harry was glad to see that Ron's slip (which he wasn't entirely sure was unintentional) seemed to help add some color back to Hermione's face.

"Shall we head down?" Harry asked.

"Better now before I come up with a better way to make a break for it," Hermione muttered. "This all just doesn't seem right."

-----

Harry, Ron and Hermione walked towards the hatching ground together until Hermione had to break away to join the other candidates. Harry and Ron continued to the upper ledge of the hatching ground where F'lar had told them they would find the best seats. Just as they reached the ledge a large bronze dragon back winged and landed.

Harry and Ron watched as the dragonrider quickly jumped down and helped a girl climb down, then he escorted her into the coliseum which was slowly starting to fill.

Harry stood gazing at the rim of the hatching grounds. There had to be at least a dozen dragons perched around the edge simply looking at the eggs.

"Better get some seats." Ron said mistily staring at the girl who had climb down from the dragon. "How about over here." He said and half dragged Harry over to where the girl had sat down.

"Can we sit here?" he asked her.

"I'm sorry! Did I take your seat?" She said quickly as she stood up sharply.

"Huh? No, no, we just wanted to join you," Ron said quickly.

The girl sat down again, and Ron right next to her. Harry rolled his eyes and joined them.

It was easy to tell why Ron was so dazed. The girl they were sitting next to had bright red hair and seemed very tall for her age. It almost looked like she was made exactly for Ron.

"I'm Ron," he said still gaping.

"I'm Menolly," the girl said quickly and looked away.

"Hi."

Harry just sat grinning at Ron's amusing attempt to pick up a girl.

Harry didn't have much more time to watch Ron's antics because the dragons perched around the rim began to hum.

Harry looked at the hatching ground and Ron finally tore his eyes away from Menolly.

The eggs all seemed to be rocking as if the creatures inside of them were quite desperate to get out. Harry did notice, however, a slightly smaller egg that seemed to have been pushed away from the main group wasn't rocking. A group of boys entered the hatching ground and stood near the eggs. The large golden egg had been pushed to its own area and a loose semi circle of girls had formed around it. Harry saw Hermione among them.

Harry looked at Hermione. She seemed on the verge of passing out. However, Harry's attention was drawn to a woman a few years their senior who was rather awkwardly stumbling into the hatching ground. One of the girls in the circle with Hermione gestured for the newcomer to join them and she did.

As the eggs continued shaking, the humming from the dragons became more intense until suddenly it abruptly stopped. The silence was only broken by the clearly audible sound of the first egg cracking open.

The little creature broke free of his shell and looked around. Harry was fondly reminded of Norbert, the Norwegian Ridgeback, the dragon Hagrid had hatched in his hut in Harry's first year (however this hatching was far more impressive). Unlike Norbert, the little creature that hatched before them seemed needier and just as frightened as the boys around it. It looked around for a moment, then stared at one particular boy and stumbled awkwardly towards him. There was a small cheer from the viewers before all attention was given back to the dragons un-hatched.

"Look at the golden egg!" Ron exclaimed pointing.

It had begun rocking violently. Harry leaned forward in his seat just in time to see the shell break in half straight down the middle, and the golden glistening creature popped her head out.

The little queen dragon turned her head to the woman who had joined the group late. Harry watched, rather confused, as the woman of the dragon's attention completely ignored it.

The dragon, however, would not be ignored and started stumbling towards her. In the blink of an eye a tiny dragon appeared over the woman's head and started squawking furiously. The entire audience watched in shock as the little dragon began diving threateningly at the queen.

Hermione and a second girl dove protectively in front of the little queen.

The woman, seemingly broken from a trance, called to the miniature dragon.

"Berd! Don't!" The woman caught the little dragon in mid air while the little queen cried in fright.

The woman holding the little dragon stared briefly at Hermione and the other girl. Then she turned around and left the hatching ground.

Slowly Hermione and the other girl turned towards each other, then all the way around to face the dragon.

The hatchling looked up at them. It turned its golden head to look at Hermione, and then slowly it turned to the other girl.

As if the girls had rehearsed it, they both slowly crouched down to eye level with the dragonet. The dragon continued looking back and forth between them.

Suddenly the two girls gasped in pain and clapped theirs hands onto their ears as if they could hear something no one else could. Then the little dragon gave a piercing shriek everyone heard and launched itself at Hermione.

Hermione didn't even have a chance to react before the dragon knocked her off her feet and began viciously slashing at her with its claws.

Harry and Ron both shot to their feet and yelled "Hermione!" just as she screamed.

Hermione had protectively brought an arm across her face and was trying to force the dragon off of her with the other, but the dragon wouldn't be moved. The creature sank its back claws into her, and continued swiping at her face and neck with its front claws.

Harry and Ron both reached for their wands, but before they could draw them the girl who had stood with Hermione stepped in.

"No!" She yelled, grabbing the dragon and trying to pull it off Hermione. The dragon, infuriated by the interference, whipped around and slashed the girl across the face. She cried out in pain and fell backwards into the sand. The dragon's entire demeanor changed instantly. It whimpered in fright and scampered over to the fallen girl, nuzzling her shoulder with its head.

The absolute silence that filled the hatching ground was broken only by the sound of the whimpering dragon and two sets of boots racing down the rock steps towards the two motionless girls.


	8. Big Dolphin Brain

**A/N. Hello all. Sorry for the delay in updating. There was a big plot hole (which actually started in the last chapter) and I had to do mass editing of it and this one (and the next one...) to fix. But here is an update finally. Thanks to everyone who posted reviews! Those always make me happy :-D A gold star to anyone who knows where I got the title of this chapter, heheh.**

Chapter 8  
Big Dolphin Brain

While everyone sat in stunned silence, Harry and Ron bolted down the steps to the hatching ground. Both boys disregarded and jumped the low wall separating them from Hermione, and ignored the shouts of people telling them to stop.

"Hermione!" Ron and Harry said together as they half ran, half slid, through the sand to her side.

The baby queen turn to them and barred her teeth was a low growl.

"Sod off!" Ron snapped at the creature. Evidently it understood because it jerked its head back in surprise and then haughtily jerked its head around as if to snub Ron.

"She's still alive," Harry said as he watched her chest gently rise and fall with each shaky but regular breath. "She's lost a lot of blood," he gently pressed the sleeve of his tunic against the side of her face where a particularly deep slash had narrowly missed her eye. "She's ice cold… Ron we've got to get her out of here somehow."

Ron nodded and started reaching for his wand, but before he could draw it F'lar's commanding voice filled the arena.

"I hope everyone will enjoy the feast that has been prepared. I think you all know where to find it." F'lar said. His statement bluntly told everyone to get out. (The rest of the dragons had finished hatching shortly after the queen, so technically the hatching was over anyway).

The Weyrleader quickly strode over to them. He was promptly followed by Lessa and a woman Harry hadn't seen before.

Lessa barely glanced at Hermione before kneeling beside the other unconscious girl.

Harry found himself being gently pushed out of the way by the woman he didn't recognize. She tut-ed softly as she started assessing the damage while carefully pressing a clean cloth to some of the gashes.

Harry and Ron both bit their lips, resisting the desire to use some simple healing charms on Hermione (after she had passed out the week before, she had made sure to teach Harry and Ron at least the basics).

F'lar seemed to suspect what Ron and Harry were thinking, (the fact that Ron had been slowly reach towards his wand also might have tipped him off).

"Don't even think about it," he hissed as he shot his hand out, firmly wrapping his fingers around Ron's upper arm.

"I think she passed out from the shock of being struck by her own dragon," Lessa said, interrupting the exchange of glares between Ron and F'lar. Then, without another word she grabbed both the girl's shoulders and gave her a hard shake.

The girl gasped as her eyes snapped open and she sat up sharply, narrowly avoiding head butting Lessa.

"What happened?" She blurted, looking around frantically.

"You should be more concerned about the welfare of your hatchling," Lessa told her sternly.

The girl turned bright red at the reprimand from the Weyrleader and quickly collected her dragon and left the hatching ground.

"That should be enough to move her," the woman tending to Hermione said, shifting uncomfortably in the hot sand. Harry suddenly became aware of the slight burning feeling in his feet.

"F'lar, would you mind? Try to hold the cloth against her neck. Not to hard, but firm enough."

The Weyrleader's facial expression stated quite clearly that he did mind, nevertheless he bent down and easily picked up Hermione.

Harry felt his stomach turn as Hermione's head limply rolled onto F'lar's shoulder; F'lar carefully held the already blood soaked cloth in place.

F'lar began leading the way out of the hatching ground. Lessa and the other woman quickly joined his side; neither of them seemed to acknowledge Harry or Ron's presence.

"We've got to get out here before something else happens," Ron growled, more to himself than Harry.

Harry and Ron both started heading towards the entrance to the hatching ground.

"Lord Jaxom!" called a voice.

Harry and Ron both turned around and saw that two people still remained in the seats around the hatching ground. There was a younger boy standing by the same wall that Harry and Ron had disregarded earlier, and an older man who was still in his seat.

"Sir?" the younger boy called back.

"Come along now," the old man instructed.

The boy hesitated, and then suddenly jumped the wall and started running across the sands.

"What the bloody…." Ron started.

"He's going for that egg!" Harry said. He suddenly remembered the smaller egg he'd spotted at the beginning of the hatching. "It's shaking, why didn't it open like the others?"

Ron shrugged. "We have chickens back home; occasionally you find an egg that won't hatch."

At that moment the boy reached the egg and with a quick movement he kicked the little egg.

"What the hell is he doing!" Harry gasped.

Ron stared. "Good question," he instinctively put his hand on his wand.

The boy ran over to where the egg had landed and succeeded in ripping a section of shell off revealing the membrane.

"Jaxom! What are you doing!" Lessa had come looking for Harry and Ron, but she arrived just in time to see the boy pull out his knife and slice the membrane.

A little white head popped out and looked directly into Jaxom's eyes.

"He says his name is Ruth!" Jaxom shouted.

There was an audible groan from the elderly man in the stands, as Lessa, who had started running towards Jaxom, skidded to a halt.

-----

Lessa had promptly shooed Harry and Ron from the hatching ground, and the two of them returned to their room. There they were finally introduced to the woman, Manora, who had been properly bandaging Hermione. At first they were tempted to kick the woman out and heal Hermione themselves, but, under her care Hermione's breathing had stabilized and she seemed no worse the wear. They concluded it'd be best not to raise unnecessary questions.

Manora was a very chatty person and immediately started talking on about things going on in the Weyr. Somehow she already knew about the young Lord Jaxom and the white dragon, and she immediately began rambling about that.

"I don't know what Lord Jaxom is going to do with that creature. He can't very well keep it. He's a Lord! Not a Dragonrider! I understand it's barely bigger than a firelizard, but still! Dragons belong in a Weyr!"

Manora paused long enough for Harry to be able to quickly jump in with a question.

"Was that a firelizard that attacked the queen at the beginning of the hatching?"

"Oh I'm sure he was just trying to protect Brekke." Manora said with a sigh. "Brekke lost her queen in that horrible mating flight ten days ago. Where Lessa and F'lar got the idea of re-impression I'll never know."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance.

"Firelizards are funny little creature, real dragons in the miniature as they say, legend says the great dragons now were breed from them." Manora smiled. "You should see Menolly's she can get her's to sing."

"Menolly?" Ron jumped in quickly.

"Oh yes, she has nine of them." Manora had replied.

Before Ron could ask more about Menolly, Manora announced she was finished with Hermione.

"The best thing for her right now is rest."

Harry and Ron nodded pretending to agree.

The door had barely closed before Harry and Ron had their wands out. Very carefully the two began casting healing charms. There wasn't going to be a Madam Pomfrey around to fix any mistakes they made.

After about fifteen minutes of charms, Hermione woke with start. She gasped in fear at an invisible enemy and protectively covered her face with her arms.

"Hermione it's okay!" Harry said quickly.

"It's over! We're here, it's alright," Ron added.

Hermione slowly lowered her guard and cast frantic looks at Harry and Ron. She was pale, hyperventilating, and still covered in bloody bandages (Harry and Ron hadn't removed them yet just in case they hadn't performed a charm properly).

"It's over?" She whispered her voice cracking as she spoke.

"It's over," Ron repeated calmly.

Hermione sat up (neither Harry nor Ron saw the point of trying to make her lay down). She was still glancing around frantically as if worried that a dragon was going to pop out of nowhere (or perhaps between?) and attack her.

"The little queen spoke to me, in my head," she started. "She must have been speaking to

Talina too, I'm not sure though."

Harry assumed Talina was the girl who had impressed the dragon.

Hermione curled up slightly and hugged her knees. "She said something was wrong," Hermione started visibly shaking, "and that one of us shouldn't have been there at all." Hermione was trembling so bad that Harry wanted to stop her from continuing, but like with Voldemort's rise for him, it was probably better for her to get it all out.

"Then she got angry. She said we were trying to confuse her, and that none of this was right." Hermione said now with tears running down her checks. "Then she attacked," her voice was barely above a whisper. "I shouldn't have been down there… I shouldn't have been down there… I shouldn't have been -"

"Hermione, it's not your fault," Ron interrupted her.

"Don't you see Ron?" Hermione practically shrieked at him. "The dragon was right! We shouldn't be here! This is all wrong! Talina should have Impressed the dragon, I shouldn't have even been there! I don't know how we got to this upside down planet, or how we are going to get back home, but what I know for certain is we shouldn't be here!"

"Hermione!" Ron grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Even if we shouldn't be here it's not your fault that you were down there!" He shouted in her face. "Do you understand me? It is not your fault!"

Hermione nodded in agreement, and Ron let go of her shoulders. She curled up a bit more and hugged her knees tighter to her chest.

"We all know we shouldn't be here," Harry said slowly, "the question is how do we get home?"

"I don't know," Hermione said quietly shaking her head. "I don't know," she kept quietly repeating over and over "I don't know… I don't know… I don't know…"

Ron grabbed her shoulders again. "Hermione stop it! No one knows, but we have to figure it out! There is a good reason you've been at the top of your classes four years running at Hogwarts! So just calm down and use that big dolphin brain of yours!"

Harry and Hermione stared at Ron. Then Hermione burst out laughing. "'Big dolphin brain?'" she asked, choking back more laughter.

Ron's ears turned pink. "It's something mum says when we're acting stupid…"

Even if it was strange, Ron's dolphin comment seemed to be what Hermione needed to snap out of it.

After helping Hermione remove the bandages, the three sat down and started trying to work out what was going on, and how they were going to fix it.


	9. What the fof?

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in updates! College is really time consuming and all that jazz. But the semester is almost over and I will be able to start updating more regularly!**

Chapter 9  
What the fof…

For the rest of the day the three sat filling up pages of parchment with notes, try to organize everything they knew.

Yet again, the noise in the Weyr was strange. It was not the eerie silence that had fallen when the two queens had gone between, but more of an uneasy celebration. In general, a hatching was suppose to be a joyous day. However, between the dragon violently attacking Hermione, and Lord Jaxom's impression of the little white one, no one was entirely sure how to react.

The trio sat in their room, oblivious to their surroundings, diligently making their notes.

"Done," Hermione said firmly.

Harry and Ron looked up.

"Okay, here is our compiled time line," she handed Harry and Ron copies as she spoke. "The three of us walked through the barrier at King's Cross. We said our good-byes; and Harry left with the Dursleys. Shortly after you left, my family and the Weasleys started heading towards the exit. We stopped briefly at a bench because my parents wanted to give me a new book they'd bought me, so I stopped to put it away. Then, as we were walking out the door at Kings Cross, everything but our trunks and us vanished, and we found ourselves on the hatching ground. Correct?"

Ron nodded, but Harry bit his lip. Hermione's time-line seemed correct, but there was something that must have happened at that moment they appeared on the hatching ground.

"What did Hagrid say?" Harry asked suddenly.

"About what?" Ron asked casually, twisting the end of his quill between his fingers.

"Voldemort," Ron flinched but Harry continued with out apology. "Something about what will come will come."

Hermione furrowed her brow slightly, trying to think of what Harry was talking about. "Oh right, 'what will come will come, and we'll meet it when it-'" she broke off suddenly and stared.

Ron raised an eyebrow, "'What will come will come and we'll meet it when it-'" Ron cut off, "What the bloody hell is going on! Why can't we say it?"

"That's got to be connected some how!" Harry said snapping his fingers. "Right before we appeared on the hatching ground that's what I was thinking about!"

Hermione was staring wide-eyed at Harry, "But how…?" She asked slowly. "What would that have to do with anything?"

Harry stood up and started pacing. "I left King's Cross. I walked out to the car." Harry walked over to his chair. "I opened the door," he opened an invisible car door; "I got in and closed the door." He mimed the movements, sitting down in his chair as he spoke. "Then we started driving away. I was thinking about what Hagrid said, that what would come would come and I would have to meet it when it fof." Harry bit his lip and just sat puzzling.

Hermione however gasped and Ron looked confused.

"What?" Harry asked, oblivious to his own words.

"What did you say Harry?" Hermione said, her eyes widening.

"What? I would have to meet it when it fof..." Harry suddenly realized what he had said. "Fof?"

Ron's eyebrows shot up. "What's a fof?"

"A clue," Hermione said firmly. "I'd bet all the money in Gringotts that has something to do with whatever happened."

There was a knock at the door.

Hermione grabbed all their notes and shoved them into her trunk.

"Come in," Harry said the moment he thought it was safe.

The door opened and the two Weyrleaders entered.

Hermione immediately went pale.

"How are you doing?" Lessa asked curtly. The question was merely a formality, not a concerned question.

Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but F'lar spoke before she could say anything. "Talina told us what happened. We want to hear your side of the story." F'lar sounded completely indifferent.

So Hermione told them the same story she'd told Harry and Ron. By the time Hermione had finished she was trembling again and unconsciously rubbing a hand along her freshly healed neck wounds.

Harry had half a mind to ask the Weyrleaders to leave.

"That's exactly what Talina said," F'lar almost sounded disappointed.

"Why'd you stop me from conjuring up stretchers for them?" Ron asked suddenly.

F'lar flinched, but Lessa didn't hesitate to answer.

"Only a select few know what you can do. No one else needs to know." Lessa spoke so bluntly that Harry almost felt stupid. Almost.

"So what? We're your big Weyr secret or something?" Ron asked bitterly. "You'd think we'd be trusted by now."

"Why?" F'lar asked, his bluntness rivaling Lessa's.

"Why! Bloody hell!" Ron shouted. "We could blow this place apart if we wanted to!"

F'lar stood up sharply. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Of course not!" Ron snapped jumping to his feet also. "That's why we-"

"Listen here you!" F'lar snarled, his eyes flashing menacingly. "You appeared out of no where threatening the queen dragon and the Weyrwoman; You've shown time and time again how dangerous you can be; And yet you expect us to trust you? Why the hell should we trust you! You just now declared you could kill us all, while claiming you wouldn't!"

"Enough." Lessa stood up and held F'lar's arm in a firm but dignified way. "You should rest," she said to Hermione as she turned to leave the room, half dragging F'lar behind her.

"Can we make a break for it yet?" Ron growled after the door shut behind the Weyrleaders.

"And go where?" Hermione asked taking out their notes again.

"Somewhere that has a dictionary that defines 'Fof,'" Ron muttered sarcastically.

Ron's comment fell on deaf ears since Hermione was busy searching through her trunk for something and Harry was re-reading their notes for the third time.

------

A couple hours later Harry sat back in his chair rubbing his eyes under his glasses. "We're not going to get much more done tonight."

Ron yawned while nodding in agreement.

Hermione silently collected their notes and put them back in her trunk. She paused a moment and stared.

"I wonder..." She muttered, pushing some notes aside she pulled out the book her parents had given her at King's Cross.

Harry read the title: _Advance Charms for the Overachiever._ He choked down a laugh as Hermione started quickly flipping through it.

"Ah! Found it. I've read a dozen references to this one." She pulled out her wand and pointed it at her trunk. She mumbled something Harry couldn't hear, and suddenly her trunk disappeared.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Ron jumped up and looked around the room for the trunk.

Hermione didn't answer but bent down and picked up her trunk which was now smaller than the palm of her hand.

"Simple." She said, almost to herself. She opened the lid of the tiny trunk and sat it down on the table. Then, with a soft motion, she taped the book with her wand and then tapped on the trunk twice. The book suddenly disappeared and the little trunk snapped shut.

Harry was stunned. "How do you get it out?"

"Simple," Hermione said again. "Accio Charms." The little trunk popped open again and the book appeared floating over the trunk full size.

"Wicked…"

"Can you do it to ours too?" Harry asked.

"Of course!"

After two more quick spells by Hermione, a grinning Harry and Ron picked up their miniature trunks and pocketed them.

With their spirits considerably higher than they had been that morning, the three got ready for and climbed into bed.

"I have a feeling tomorrow will be a lot better," Hermione said with a small smile.

"I hope so," Harry said quietly.

Ron answered with a soft snore.


End file.
